Lyman Frank Baum

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Lyman Frank Baum, 1911
Signature of Lyman Frank Baum

Lyman Frank Baum (born May 15, 1856 in Chittenango , New York , † May 6, 1919 in Los Angeles ) was an American writer . He wrote the classic children's book The Wonderful Wizard of Oz ( The Wonderful Wizard of Oz ) and 13 serial novels, in the imaginary world of his magic Oz play.

Life

Baum's German-born father, Benjamin Ward Baum, was a successful businessman who had made a fortune from oil fields in Pennsylvania , and so Baum spent his childhood at the luxurious Rose Lawn estate . For his 15th birthday, his father gave him a printing press that sparked Baum's interest in writing. In 1882 he married Maud Gage, the daughter of a leading women's rights activist, and moved with her to South Dakota .

Baum tried his hand at numerous business areas. He worked in the theater , for newspapers and magazines, manufactured Baum’s Castorine’s patented lubricating oil , ran the Baum’s Bazaar department store and was also a chicken farmer at times. His first book, published in 1886, was about raising chickens. Baum was also the editor of his own weekly magazine, which, like most of his companies, was not particularly successful.

Baum was also active as a journalist; Two newspaper comments from 1890 and 1891 have survived, in which he called for an end to the conflict with the Native Americans by "total annihilation". He started from the assumption that the indigenous people had been wronged for centuries and that they must therefore always remain a source of trouble. Baum used the extreme form of literary satire introduced by Jonathan Swift (example: A Modest Proposal for Preventing the Children of Poor People from Being a Burthen to their Parents, or the Country, and for Making them Beneficial to the Publick ) in view of social and political grievances. This problem can only be mastered through a radical solution.

Baum's grave in Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale , California

In 1891 the family moved to Chicago and Baum looked for a new way to make money. Since he was always happy to come up with bedtime stories for his own children and tell them in bed, he decided to write stories for other children. In his first two books he mainly told traditional stories, one of which he introduced to a young girl named "Dorothy". This led him to create the land of wonders and joys, Oz . In 1900 his book The Wonderful Wizard Of Oz was published , which became a huge success overnight. Within two years it was adapted as a stage musical , for which Baum himself wrote the libretto. Baum wrote 13 other novels about the wonderful land, where he declared several times that he had now completed the series and would not write any more Oz sequels. Meanwhile, he turned to numerous other children's stories, including under the pseudonym Edith Van Dyne . Due to the high demand for more Oz novels and because of the letters of many children, he continued the series again and again.

On September 4, 1892, he joined the Theosophical Society and in 1895, after the split as a result of the Judge Case, followed the Theosophical Society in America . Several of his essays and books dealt with theosophical subjects.

Lyman Frank Baum died in Hollywood in 1919 . He has published over 60 books in his life.

Works (selection)

Title page of the original English edition of The Wizard of Oz (1900)

The Oz novels

  1. Der Zauberer von Oz , 1940 (Original title: The Wonderful Wizard of Oz , 1900; mostly reprinted under the title: The Wizard of Oz )
  2. Im Reich des Zauberers Oz , German first published in 1981 (Original title: The Marvelous Land of Oz: Being an Account of the Further Adventures of the Scarecrow and the Tin Woodman mostly under the short title The Land of Oz , 1904)
  3. Princess Ozma von Oz , German first publication 1981 (Original title: Ozma of Oz , 1907)
  4. Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz , 1999 (original title Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz , 1908)
  5. Dorothy auf Zauberwege , 2000 (Original title: The Road to Oz , 1909)
  6. Dorothy in the Emerald City , 2000 (Original title: The Emerald City of Oz , 1910)
  7. Dorothy and the Patchwork Girl , 2002 (Original title: The Patchwork Girl of Oz , 1913)
  8. Tik-Tak of Oz , 2018 (Original title: Tik-Tok of Oz , 1914)
  9. The Scarecrow of Oz , 2018 (Original title: The Scarecrow of Oz , 1915)
  10. Rinkitink in Oz , 2018 (Original title: Rinkitink in Oz , 1916)
  11. The Lost Princess of Oz , 2019 (Original title: The Lost Princess of Oz , 1917)
  12. Der Blechmann von Oz , 2019 (Original title: The Tin Woodman of Oz , 1918)
  13. The Magic of Oz , 2019 (Original title: The Magic of Oz , 1919, published posthumously)
  14. Glinda von Oz , 2019 (Original title: Glinda of Oz , 1920, published posthumously)

More Oz-related works by Baum

  • The Magical Monarch of Mo (1896)
  • Santa Claus - The adventurous life of Santa Claus, 1993 / The Santa Claus or the adventurous life of Santa Claus, 2010 (Original title: The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus , 1902)
  • Queen Zixi of Ix (1904/5)
  • Queer Visitors from the Marvelous Land of Oz (1905, comic strip illustrating 27 stories)
  • The Woggle-Bug Book: The Strange Adventure of the Woggle-Bug (1905)
  • John Dough and the Cherub (1906)
  • Sky Island (1912)
  • Little Wizard Stories of Oz (1913, collection of 6 short stories)

Documentation

  • Thomas Gaevert : Paths to Oz. Radio documentary about Lyman Frank Baum, Alexander Wolkow and Leonid Wladimirsky, production: Südwestrundfunk 2009, first broadcast: June 21, 2009, SWR 2.

Web links

Commons : Lyman Frank Baum  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ L. Frank Baum's Editorials on the Sioux Nation ( Memento of May 1, 2008 in the Internet Archive ); Northern State University, Aberdeen, South Dakota, USA
  2. ^ German title and German publication date of Der Zauberer von Oz in the German National Library , accessed on March 21, 2013.
  3. ^ German title and first German publication date of The Land of Oz in the German National Library , accessed on March 21, 2013.
  4. ^ German title and German first publication date of Ozma of Oz in the German National Library , accessed on March 21, 2013.
  5. ^ German title and German publication date of Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz in the German National Library , accessed on March 21, 2013.
  6. ^ German title and German publication date of Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz in the German National Library , accessed on March 21, 2013.
  7. ^ German title and German publication date of Dorothy in der Smaragdenstadt in the German National Library , accessed on March 21, 2013.
  8. ^ German title and German publication date of Dorothy und das Patchwork-Mädchen in the German National Library , accessed on March 21, 2013.
personal data
SURNAME Baum, Lyman Frank
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Baum, L. Frank
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American writer
DATE OF BIRTH May 15, 1856
PLACE OF BIRTH Chittenango , New York
DATE OF DEATH May 6, 1919
Place of death Los Angeles , California